Speaking of the name Teng Huatao, many people may not be familiar with it, but when it comes to " Shanghai Fortress ", it is estimated that many people will wake up from a dream.
I think back then, it was this film with rave reviews that brought " The Wandering Earth " to the disgrace of domestic science fiction movies, and also caused Lu Han and Shu Qi to be scolded.
and the director behind it is Teng Huatao.
Although "Shanghai Fortress" made Teng Huatao "notorious", in fact, he has also brought many film and television works to the audience that have both reputation and popularity.
For example, the popular healing movies " 33 Days of Love " and " Waiting for the Wind to Come ", as well as "Double-Sided Tape", "The Age of Naked Marriage", "Snail House" and "Heart Residence" that directly hit the pain points of reality etc.
Through these works, he has made celebrities more popular than he can count with one hand.
In CCTV's recently popular "City Within a City", Teng Huatao once again proved his strength, making an urban drama that combines finance and the workplace an ups and downs.
also boldly cast new actors such as Bai Yufan and Xia Meng as starring roles, allowing them to show the screen charm of a new generation of actors with the blessing of Yu Hewei, Wang Jinsong and Chen Jin and other veteran actors.
After watching 8 episodes in one go, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was finally a workplace drama that the audience could stay up late to watch, and there was finally a livelihood and financial services drama that was closely related to people’s lives.
Compared with those intellectual dramas that spread industrial saccharine and make up bloody plots under the guise of workplace and finance, "City Within a City" really respects the audience and talks about seemingly suspended financial themes. Very down to earth.
One scene that impressed me deeply was that there were many retired elderly people living in a certain community. They had spare money, but when it came to investing, they were either deceived into a trap by bad people, or they did not buy any financial products because they were afraid of being deceived. .
This phenomenon is very common among ordinary people.
"City Within a City" seems to feel the pulse of ordinary people, and tells the confusion in everyone's hearts into a story, which can easily resonate with the audience.
However, it does not stop at asking questions, but tries its best to give relatively correct answers to the issues that everyone is concerned about.
The drama here uses the male protagonist’s mouth to expose the tricks of scammers, and also asks him to patiently explain to the elderly what kind of financial management concepts ordinary people should establish and which financial management products are suitable for them.
The easy-to-understand and educational settings in this plot alone can beat those suspended workplace financial dramas by several blocks.
The fact that the drama has such a realistic storyline is inseparable from the excellence of the original author and the efforts of the screenwriters.
"City Within a City" is adapted from Teng Xiaolan's novel of the same name. Judging from her status as the winner of the Lu Xun Literature Award, we know that her strength cannot be underestimated.
And the three screenwriters, including Bian Zhihong, Wu Nan and Tian Yu, are also better than the last.
Among them, some of them made their film debut with " Full City with Golden Armor ", some of them made their film masterpiece " Crazy Alien ", and some of them only edited two works, but all of them are The hit drama is really a blessing in disguise.
Because Teng Xiaolan has a thorough understanding of the financial industry, the direction of the story is already fascinating. However, after the preparations for the series began, the three screenwriters conducted multiple in-home interviews with practitioners in different positions in the financial industry.
So when we watch the drama, we can clearly find that the lines of the characters in the drama, especially the lines at work, have both professional standards and daily tone, which are very consistent with the discourse atmosphere of financial people in the workplace.
However, the detailed and popular presentation of the financial industry is only part of "City Within the City" as a workplace drama. Its most fascinating thing is the analysis and reflection on human nature.
As a financial person working hard in the financial city, every protagonist in the play is faced with the temptation of huge amounts of money at all times.
The closer one gets to money, the more thoroughly human nature is exposed. This is why the audience can frequently see the characters gradually getting lost for money in the play.
But the great thing about the screenwriters is that they do not blindly exaggerate the temptation of money to the characters, but try to find the difficulties faced by the characters and further describe the great changes that money can bring to their current situation.
Then, let the characters make a struggle about human nature between love and law.
Judging from the current plot, almost every character can find a real dilemma behind being tired of money.
Zhao Hui, played by Yu Hewei, is the vice president of the bank. He has extremely high professionalism and has never used his position to seek benefits for himself since he entered the industry.
But God's will is a trick. After his wife died unexpectedly, his only daughter suffered from a disease that required 2 million US dollars to cure. At this time, whether he sticks to the bottom line is directly related to his daughter's life.
Tian Xiaohui, played by Xia Meng, is a local girl in Shanghai. Her mother divorced her father because of stock trading, and she worked hard to raise her by herself.
My mother’s wish is for her to find a profitable job and marry a rich man.
The reality is that she sticks to her heart but cannot find a job, and she wholeheartedly stays with her poor boyfriend but cannot get blessings.
Later, under the intervention of her mother, she became her cousin's puppet and was forced to get involved in a business war between two companies. At this time, should she choose money and family, or should she choose morality and conscience?
These dilemmas make the fate of the characters full of uncertainty, and also make their images more three-dimensional and multi-faceted. During the viewing process, the audience can also more realistically feel the complexity of human nature.
Especially with the precise shaping of the actors, their stories are even more touching.
I have to praise the director’s success in casting.
Needless to say, Yu Hewei, after "Broken Him" became a hot search topic, the entire Internet audience knew that Zhao Hui's wife was gone and his daughter was sick.
He was in so much pain that when he cried and complained in front of a woman who looked exactly like his wife, the feeling of brokenness was really fascinating.
Bai Yufan, who plays the leading role, perfectly expresses Tao Wuji's characteristics of being intelligent, discerning, and very cruel. The scene in which
saves Master Bai Jue and exposes Zhu Qiang is his best interpretation of the character's temperament.
Xia Meng and Long Ni did not hold back. As the two most important female characters in the play, the former performed the transformation process of a woman from a newcomer to the workplace to a master in the workplace.
The latter shows the multi-faceted nature of an independent woman just right, making the audience unknowingly obsessed with her beauty, amazed by her scheming, moved by her kindness, and sympathetic to her plight. .
To be honest, many people came to watch this drama because of Yu Hewei, but in the end they were strongly attracted by the second female lead played by her.
It is no wonder that some people say that after "Hurry", Lonnie, who played Gao Qilan, will finally become popular across the country with Zhou Lin in "City Within".
In addition, the blessing of a series of powerful actors such as Wang Jinsong, Chen Jin, Tu Songyan and Wang Xiao also gave this drama many highlights in terms of acting.
believes that as the plot develops, the audience will be able to perceive the charm of more actors.
In short, after binge-watching 8 episodes, I personally feel that the look and feel of "City Within a City" is still very good. The fly in the ointment of
is that many scenes in the drama are a bit vulgar. In other words, they are too cliche and completely uninteresting. This is completely incomparable with " Blossoms ", which is so beautiful that people can't take their eyes away. .
For example, the long shot from above appears at the beginning of the series, as well as the traffic shots, city shots, and neighborhood shots that are frequently used during transitions. These bad street shots really bring down the show a bit. level.
In addition, there is another interesting setting in the series, which is that the age gap between the two pairs of official partners is a bit too big.
The couple is Yu Hewei and Long Ni, who are 22 years apart, and the couple is Tu Songyan and Yang Zishan, who are 12 years apart. Although true love has no age limit, the psychological gap caused by this age difference really affects the immersion in watching the drama. Feeling.
However, again, many works are actually full of flaws.
Of course we can criticize its shortcomings and shortcomings, but the most important thing is to look at its good sides and see things that are beneficial to ourselves. "City Within a City" is such a work with both advantages and disadvantages.
If you have just watched this series and have your own opinions, please share your thoughts in the comment area and let us communicate together. (Written by Ye Shi)
